In my early 20s, it seemed like I could eat whatever I wanted and still either lose or maintain my weight. Sure, I was exercising on a regular basis back then, just like I am now, but in college, losing and maintaining my weight just seemed easier. I’m sure I’m not the only one out there who has finally acknowledged that our metabolism does slow down as we get older. On average, women gain 1.5 pounds a year during adulthood, which can easily translate into 30-5o extra pounds by the by we reach 50! Ugh – that’s not what I wanted to hear either!

Luckily, there are ways to prevent this age-related weight gain. There are obvious ways to help keep the weight off, including reducing daily calorie intake and increasing cardiovascular exercise. However, according to Prevention magazine, there are other sneaky things that can do to help rev up our slow metabolism and help us avoid mid-life weight gain, including:

10 Ways to Increase Your Metabolism

Eat More – It’s true, we do want to reduce our calorie intake as we get older, but we don’t want to drop below 1,200 calories a day. Consuming less than 1,200 calories can cause our body’s metabolism to slow down and burn precious muscle for the energy that your diet is not providing.

A Cup of Joe – Caffeine stimulates the central nervous system and helps speed up metabolism. But, like anything else, you don’t want to go overboard on the caffeine either.

Go Whole or Go Home – We all know that white breads, pastas, and carbs in general have very little nutritional value, particularly in the fiber area. But what you may not know is that fiber can help increase our fat burn by 30%! So, limit the white carbs and go for the fiber-rich whole grains. How can you tell if your bread is whole grain?

Embrace the Cold – Drinking cold water and other calorie-free beverages may help to raise our resting metabolism – possibly because we expend more energy to heat the cold water within our bodies.

Avoid Pests – Research has shown that people who consume large amounts of food treated with pesticides may experience a dip in their metabolism and may be more at risk for weight gain. Although it’s unrealistic to assume that you can always buy organic produce, you may want to consider buying the more pesticide-heavy produce in their organic form. What are the best foods to buy organic?

Pump Some Iron – No, I don’t mean weight-lifting, although that’s important too. I’m talking about the mineral iron. We need iron-rich foods to carry the oxygen our muscles need to burn fat. By nature, women lose iron each month during menstruation. If we don’t replenish our iron stores, we run the risk of having low energy and a sluggish metabolism.

This just in – exercise is great for the body, but don’t rely on exercise alone to lose weight. A new study in JAMA found that in over 34,000 non-dieting women, exercise was associated with not gaining weight over time, but only in women who weren’t overweight to begin with. The overweight/obese women in the study had a much harder time losing weight if they relied on exercise alone to shed pounds.

Weight Loss Thoughts from the Personal Trainer

Just as exercise alone will make it hard for you to lose weight, relying only on calorie intake (your diet) for weight loss is not the best approach either. If there is one thing I stress as a personal trainer it is that healthy weight loss comes from a combined approach – calorie restriction + exercise. And, whether that exercise is in the form of running, strength training, or yoga, exercise is still a major factor in what keeps our heart and our whole body healthy.

For those of you who are overweight or are obese and are struggling with weight loss – Weight loss is hard – there’s no doubt about that. But, when people ask me what is the one thing they can do to lose weight, I tell them that they need to focus on taking in fewer calories than they burn or

Calorie burn > calorie intake.

Although this is a good rule of thumb to follow, the exact amount of calories a person must burn and omit from their diet to lose 1-2 pounds a week varies from person to person. When I coach someone on how to lose weight, I use a 2-step approach:

Two-Step Approach to Weight Loss

STEP 1 – Establish Calorie Baseline: Determine your baseline for both calorie intake – how many calories you eat a day – and your calorie expenditure – how many calories you burn during exercise and regular daily activities. This baseline is what your body is used to and what is probably making you gain your unwanted weight.

STEP 2 – Adjust Baseline: Decrease your daily baseline calorie intake while also increasing your calorie expenditure so that the total amount of calories you are “giving up” equals 500-600 calories a day. For instance, you may choose to increase your activity level/exercise so that you burn 250 calories more than your baseline per day, while also eating 250 fewer calories a day. Therefore, your total daily calorie deficit is 500 calories. This deficit can fluctuate from day to day or week to week. You may feel like exercising more one week or eating fewer calories the next. With this approach, a calorie deficit of 500 calories a day equals 3,500 calories a week, or a loss of 1 pound per week.

Again, this Two-Step Approach to Weight Loss does not rely on exercise or diet alone to lose weight – it’s a combination approach. And this approach does not apply to those with special circumstances, such as those with thyroid issues. As always, before starting any exercise routine or weight loss method, check with your primary care clinician to make sure the strategy is right for you.

That’s right, ladies and gents, I passed the American College of Sports Medicine Personal Training Certification Exam! So, you are now looking at the newest member of the personal training community!

After taking an intense course and then studying for three months, I finally felt that I was ready to take the test. Whew – and what a test it was! It took me about 2 1/2 hours to complete, and that was after 15 minutes of instruction/preliminary questions. All those hours of studying after work and on the weekend paid off – thank goodness. Otherwise, I think I would have cried – for not passing the test and for having to retake it and spend more money.

The test itself was pretty challenging, although not outrageous, especially because I studied for it. And you definitely need to study for this test as well as understand the practical application of the principles. I just wish I knew what answers I got wrong so that I could review the right answer.

I am really looking forward to sharing the personal training health and fitness principles with all of you and showing you how I apply the principles to my own life. That’s it for now – I’m heading to bed. I forgot how tiring test-taking can be!